BALLSTON SPA — Saying it would shed light on “what really happened during those dark moments,” the attorney for the family of a Wilton teen accidentally shot to death by his playmate in 2010 is asking a judge for the youngster to be deposed as part of a wrongful death lawsuit.
Richard Mogg, who is representing Yuri and Oksana Naumkin, the parents of 14-year-old Nicholas Naumkin, said Friday that Saratoga County Judge Robert Chauvin listened to arguments Thursday about the deposition. Chauvin is expected to make a decision in the future, said Mogg, with the Bronx office of the law firm Frekhtman & Associates.
At the same time, Mogg said the Naumkins are hoping their son’s death will lead to more stringent state and national legislation aimed at preventing incidents like the one that claimed their son. He said they have enlisted the help of the Washington D.C.-based Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
Mogg declined to say how much monetary damages they are seeking.
“Even though it’s a civil matter, this is about much more than money, and we’re hoping the case sets the precedent to get the governors and the President (to have) a national law,” he said. “It’s not just about who is getting the guns, it’s how they are stored and who is getting access to them.”
Paul Briggs, a Schenectady-based attorney with Pemberton & Briggs, is representing Edward O’Rourke in the lawsuit.
Briggs declined comment Friday, saying he doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
He has, however, filed a motion seeking to prevent O’Rourke’s son from having to give a deposition on the grounds it would further traumatize the now 14-year-old boy who authorities have said accidently shot and killed Nicholas Naumkin, on Dec. 22, 2010.
The Times Union is not naming the teen who was sentenced in the summer of 2011 to two years’ probation after pleading guilty in Family Court to illegal possession of a weapon, according to authorities.
In March, Edward O’Rourke pleaded guilty to a charge of misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child for leaving a handgun and ammunition where his son could get to them while they were home alone at the O’Rourkes’ Gansevoort home. The weapon accidentally discharged, fatally injuring Nicholas.
Under the agreement, O’Rourke also was ordered to surrender any weapons and pay a $ 200 surcharge.
Oksana Naumkin decried the gun incident that killed her son and the recent spate of mass shootings, chiefly the rampage last month at a Connecticut elementary school where 20 children and six women were massacred.
“We are absolutely going to try and change something or at least be a part of it in the bigger picture,” said Naumkin, who also said that police investigators have told her that Nicholas never handled the weapon that ultimately killed him. “I don’t want another family to go through this horrific pain.”
Twelve days after Nicholas’ death, the family was again struck by tragedy when Oksana Naumkin’s father, Oleg Moston, 77, was killed. Authorities have said the Saratoga Springs man apparently became disoriented and wandered onto the Northway where he was hit by several vehicles not far from the cemetery where Nicholas is buried.
pnelson@timesunion.com • 518-454-5347 • @apaulnelson
